Metal bending brake



Oct. 8, 1940. v. A. NILSBY METAL BENDING BRAKE Filed July 23, 1937 3 Sheets-Sheet l vie forgpiuvamola @ct. 8, l 940.

V. A. NILSBY METAL BENDING BRAKE Filed July 25, 1937 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 H 5. a 8 a 9.. W1. u R w H H J Vb: QM 1 w mwmfi ,1 HM fin. w@ 1 NQAW.

ms f We ATTORNEYS Patented Oct. 8, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METAL BENDING BRAKE Victor A. Nilsby, Seattle, Wash. Application July 23, 1937, Serial No. 155,347

1 Claim;

My present invention relates to the art of sheet metal working machines and more particularly to a metal bending brake.

In the forming of sheet metal, when it is necessary to fold, crease, or bend the same, it is customary to use the so-oalled bending machine, or brake, which of necessity is very substantially constructed. The need of this strong structure is that it is essential that the bends be straight and, unless the machine itself is of substantial construction it is apt to give, or bend, at some point in the fold and thus produce a fold that is not straight and will not be satisfactory in service. Owing to these facts it is customary to provide a brake having, normally, a fixed,

lower jaw, an inclined upper jaw, usually arranged to be adjustable to accommodate different thicknesses of material, and av movable member, or apron. These three members meet on a common line, or axis, and it is customary to provide the axis of rotation about which the apron revolves coincident with this axis. Because of its substantial weight the structure is normally supported on heavy hinges, or journals, which are disposed on this axis. With this arrangement it is necessary that the material being worked should. not exceed, in width, the overall distance between these hinges or journals. It therefore follows that when wide material is being used a very wide brake is required. This, again, be-

cause of the necessity of preventing springing of the same in operation, calls for heavy, massive construction, which is difficult and clumsy to handle.

35. In my present invention I provide the same essential parts, namely, the fixed jaw, the movable upper jaw, and the apron. But instead of having a pivot on the prolongation of the common axis I provide a segmental support at each end of the apron and support these partial circles on a large diameter so that material being worked can be passed through the machine without any interference from the pivot as in the conventional equipment. tion makes it possible to handle pieces of material, even several times as wide as the brake, because they can then be formed with a series of partial bends and further to work material that has been broken along another line prior to the final forming. This construction permits the accurate forming of many unusual shapes; it makes it possible to work into the corners of material that cannot be worked with the usual equipment. Many different shapes can thus be This type of construe-' handled as for instance the forming of a right angle corner in a channel section.

Other and more specific objects will be apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein it Figure 1 is a perspective View showing the front of a bending brake made after the teachings of my invention.

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing the rear of the device shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3 and Figure 4 are end elevations of my device showing successive positions in the forming of a piece of sheet metal the same being shown in the Views in dotted outline.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary end elevation show- 16 ing the adjusting means for my upper, or movable, jaw.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary, sectional view taken along the line 6-6 of Figure 5.

Figure '7 is a fragmentary, sectional view taken 20 along the line 'l'! of Figure 6. Figure 8 is a fragmentary view showing the supporting rollers that position the flanges of the apron of my brake.

Referring to the drawings, throughout which 25 like reference characters indicate like parts, l0 and I2 designate, respectively, spaced end frame members. These provide the support for the entire device and are joined together by the horizontal plate l4 and the vertically disposed plate 3o l6, together with the joining angles as I8 and I9. Further rigidity is given to the device by virtue of apron 20 having the end plate or guide means .22 and 24. The upper or movable jaw member 26 further stiffens the frame work ofthe device. The fixed table I4 is provided with a jaw gripping member 28 which extends longitudinally of the bending axis with its one corner 30 disposed substantially on the bending axis. This member may be, if desired, adjustably positioned. 49

Disposed immediately above lower gripping member 28 is the upper gripping member 32. This member is either formed as part of, or fixedly secured to, the upper jaw member 26 and the adjustment of this upper gripping member is 5;

effected, normally, by adjusting the entire upper or movable jaw 26, by the means probably best illustrated inFigures 5, 6, and 7. Horizontal adjustment is provided by fixedly securing to jaw" member 26, or forming as part thereof, lug 34. 50 This lug is provided. with a pin 36 adapted to be guided and positioned by guide way 38 formed in member 40. Member 40 in turn is capable of horizontal adjustment by means of slot 42 which has disposed in it the fixed bolt or stud 44 so ar- 55 ranged that by clamping nut definite positioning of guide 38 is assured. Vertical adjustment of jaw 26 for variation in stock, and the like, is accomplished by the cross-head guide arrangement illustrated in Figures 5, 6, and 7 in which a guideway 56 is provided within the eccentric strap member 68. Disposed within guideway 46 is slide member 56. This member is provided with a bolt or lug which passes through the end frame members I!) and I2 and is thereby secured thereto. By adjustment of bolt 52-the eccentric strap 48, pivot shaft 54, and the movable jaw member 26 are raised or lowered. A bolt 55, which is threaded into slide member 56 and is adjustable for vertical movement by passing through a slot in strap member 43, when tightened, locks members 56 and 48 rigidly together.

Following the principles of'brakes it is, of course, necessary that jaw 26 be opened each time a new piece of material is being used or a different bend is being made in the same piece of material. To accomplish this, I provide, disposed on shaft 54, an eccentric 56. This is eccentrically mounted upon shaft 54 and is encircled by the eccentric strap 48. As a matter of convenience an operating handle as 51 is provided which either is formed as part of eccentric 56 or fixedly secured thereto. It is believed it will be understood that rotation of eccentric 56 will raise or lower the movable jaw 26.

The movable plate, or apron, 20 which actually provides this folding, or bending action, is dis- 7 posed so as to swing in a manner common to equipment of this order. The methods of mounting the apron, however, is believed to be novel in that instead of being mounted on the conventional hinge or fulcrum which is disposed upon the braking axis, I provide that the supports for apron 20 be substantially semi-circular plates as 22 and 24' which are secured to each end of apron 20. These plates are preferably formed with rims 58 and 59 which are offset and disposed inwardly from the main body of plates 22 and 24. This formation provides the inner race bearing portion 60 and the outer race bearing portion. Adapted to engage the inner race are rollers 64 which are revolvably secured to the end frame members l0 and I2 after the showing probably best illustrated in Figures 6 and 8.

Similarly the outer race 62 is engagedby the flanged rollers 56 which also are revolvably secured to frame members Ill and [2. Further, the flanging'at 16, of rollers 66, serves to hold the apron end plates 22 and 24 in tight operating relationship with the frame members: proper l0 and I2.

- Method of operation In operating my brake on narrow material the operation is substantially that used with conventional equipment, normally, if the guage of 26 by means of screw 52, and its associated mechanism and lock it by means of screw 55. Then,

handle 58, which operates eccentric 56, is moved to the position indicated in Figure 3, thus raising jaw 26 sufiiciently so that the material can be slipped in between the two gripping members 28 and 32. Handle 51 is then moved into the general position shown in Figure 4 where the eccentric then clamps the material between the two gripping plates. The plate is then set ready for bending which is accomplished by the operator, or operators, grasping handle 12 and raising apron 20 upwardly until the desired degree of bending has been completed. The finished work is then removed by dropping handles 57 to their lower position so that jaw '26 israised to free the work.

In certain types of work it is desirable to form material where the fold is much longer than the jaws of the machine and it is in this general class of work that my device is of particular advantage. For such uses the material is inserted as before and the forming is partly completed. The material is then passed along through the jaws and the next portion is partially bent. This is continued until the whole bend has been partly formed. The material is then passed through such additional forming operations as is required to produce the finished bend. In this manner folds can be made lengthwise of long sheets of material with a brake having a rather narrow set of jaws. This, of course, greatly extends the field of usefulness of this invention and makes it possible to have a rather lightly constructed piece of equipment which has the capacity of the very heavy, expensive, and unwieldy equipment heretofore used for such purposes.

There are many other uses for this equipment that will be apparent to those skilled in this type of work; namely, that of putting additional bends in work which has already been formed, such as, for instance, bending a channel iron, which has previously been. formed, into a right angle or completely formingit into a box. This type of work can readily be executed with my brake in that there are no obstructions along the axis of bending as is common with conventional equipment. It will be apparent it is believed that the angular position of handle 58 may be changed from that shown in Figures 2 and 3, if the same is necessary to accommodate material that isgoing to be formed at a distance from its margin where the handle 58, extending downwardly, as shown, might interfere with the operation.

The foregoing description and accompanying drawings are believed to clearly disclose a preferred embodiment of my invention but it will be understood that this disclosure is merely illustrative and that such changes in the invention may be made as are fairly within the scope and spirit of the following claim. I

I claim:

In a sheet metal bending machine, the combination with a frame including a pair of spaced uprights, and work clamping means at the exteriorfront of the machine, of an inner arcuate series of rollers and an outer arcuate series of rollers journaled on each upright, an oscillatable shaper having a bending apron for co-action with the clamping means, said shaper including endplates each having an annular inset peripheral flange forming opposed tracks for the two series of rollers and located between an inner and an outer series of rollers. I

VICTOR A. NILSBY. 

